A is for Attitude that governs (my) 2024.
As you are aware by now, it’s about observations for yours truly. Keeping my eyes open, eavesdropping and generally trying to look inconspicuous as I stare is what I can say hand-on-heart motivates me to understand the world. 2024 started with a nice glass of bubbly amongst a lovely group of friends as we watched the fireworks on the telly. Thanking my lucky stars I made it through what I considered 2023 to be an ‘annus horribilis’ year (although there were some great moments, like meeting new people and being able to realign and reverse priorities) generally speaking, wars, inflation, high-interest rates, bullying, not enough time to read and weather patterns resembling Armageddon meant that 2024 couldn’t come soon enough. January first welcomed an attitudinal change. While I don’t have a crystal ball to predict any future, there have been some (funny) observations of late that I believe will perhaps influence some key elements that I’ll interpret as a benchmark moving forward.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Love Letters and other hotel slippers
There are two kinds of people. Hoarders and non-hoarders. And if you happen to be the offspring of a baby boomer, chances are you would have likely shared a home with a hoarder. This was evident in the days I dedicated to clearing a dead man’s history. I had an inkling that dear old dad used to hang onto just about everything, not because I found shoeboxes filled with mini soaps, tiny shampoo and conditioner containers, toothpaste packets, tea and coffee pouches swiped from the hotel rooms he frequented since retiring, nor did the drawers full of medicine receipts, travel booking confirmations and retro postcards sent decades before, but in the cupboard, yes, a cupboard full of pristine, still-in-the plastic-wrap hotel slippers. The type that robust bodies saunter about when the sauna session is complete.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Would you share your music playlist?
On the morning commute into the office (yes, believe it or not, I’m venturing out of my loungewear and putting on proper shoes), the radio station announcer posed a question to the listeners. ‘Would you share your playlist?’ Her co-presenter immediately retorted with a stern ‘No way.’
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Why I hate ironing.
I’m impatient, the irons too heavy, it’s boring, and why the hell should I?
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
A lucky moment - how hard is it?
I’ve been dappling with the whole idea of luck. Just what is it? Scientifically speaking, luck is a chance encounter, but what about those who appear to have a chance encounter that leads to good fortune? That’s not luck; that’s called persistence and hard work and recognising the core of what luck represents. If luck is a chance encounter, you’re not going to encounter anyone sitting at home doing nothing right? And if I read about how ‘lucky’ someone is, I think I’m going to scream. If you’ve had a fortunate outcome, that’s not luck, honey; that’s payback for the countless hours dedicated to the task.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Praise for the list.
I love writing lists. Seems like so many others do as well. There are Pinterest boards dedicated to correct list writing. Youtube videos demonstrating the ‘write’ way to write a list. Some would say that it’s too rigid, while others claim that life without a list would be chaos.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
What's the reality of a reality show?
I admit it, there’s nothing more I like than to tune into a reality show to make me laugh out loud. And by that, I mean, I can convince myself I’m the normal one in the comfort of my inner voice (ah, but what constitutes ‘normal’ one would say, ok, I confess I would say that). What I find funny is whose reality are we talking about here? Is it those whose socio-economic wealth-o-metre is more than the debt of a third world nation or those who consider orange spray tan and a ‘bedazzled jewelled gown’ haute couture? Or that you’ll find ‘true love’ on an island, or that botched plastic surgery can be magically repaired by another surgeons knife? And while I cannot subscribe to every reality show, the few that I watch religiously never fail to entertain me at all.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Somewhere north of So-Ho – October 2000
Currently embracing the armchair traveller movement, more images of past trips emerge as I finally get to the end of a five-decade photographic journey. I won’t even begin to count the number of images I’ve paused, giggled, and sighed at. Come on Covid, go away so we can travel again! When this picture was taken, we were sans children and on a trip to NYC. We learnt about ‘tree rodents,’ the importance of tipping, that a hot dog from a corner street vendor makes for a great lunch and tourist companion, and that coffee made by Australian baristas in Australia will always be the best. Apologies to my U.S friends but hoping for a good coffee we realised was all but a dream…Passing the myriad of mirrored Starbucks coffee shops along W Broadway, we came across this madam who decided to have a snooze. While she was very much alive (yes, we went in to check) we loved the fact that she was not only a fashionista-coloured co-ordinated granny, but that on close inspection she had the smoothest complexion. (Remember we lent in to make sure she was breathing and not in a creepy sort of way.) And as we channelled our inner Samantha Jones we said ‘Girl Paleese!’
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
It started with an 80s mix tape...
…and a Covid project that propelled me to pull out every single photo album and take out each photograph on a lockdown infused Sunday afternoon. The idea is to scan each and every pic so that it’s forever captured digitally. This will probably take years I know, but pausing at images, some I didn’t even remember, tested my long term memory to categorise scenarios into chronological order. Thank goodness for one of my besties. She just looks at an image and knows exactly when it occurred. She is now my official curator of memories!
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Go on..try not to smile!
Enter the fog
A short short story about a walk in the fog.
In the words of Charlie Brown - Good Grief!
We all know what’s going on in the world right now, I won’t use this forum to add yet another level of paranoia. Yesterday I put a 24 hour ban on any news broadcast, I refused to engage in any CV discussion and refrained from social media crazy. Even though new and updating messages are ultimately affecting our everyday life, there is one quote that resonates at the moment, and it’s from my friend Charlie Brown.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
An ode to my peeps
‘Come up and recuperate, you can relax and rest and get your body functioning again.’ This was the gift from one of my besties as I deal with my immediate reality, that and the fact that we can share our favourite Gin, chat, catch-up, sleep, FB, Insta and watch Netflix – however, we’ll leave that for another time. So for this particular post, I dedicate this to all my peeps.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
Finding the 'f' in funny
I’ll admit I’ve let time lapse a little, however there has been a lot on lately. Apart from the usual, three months of chemo, three exams, three assignments (passed, thank goodness) and full time work, Ive been on a mission (with my likeminded friends, thanks Madam C) to ‘find funny.’ I made ‘Finding Funny‘ a mission. How else was I going to get through this horrible disease, without (metaphorically) losing it completely? I’ve scoured bookshops all over Sydney, the same question asked time and time again.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez
5 things that makes me laugh
This week Ive had what I call an ‘internally driven, humorous look at imagery that made me LOL by myself.’ You know those times, when all of a sudden a wide smile crosses your face, you ‘like’ something, you ‘share’ a funny message. It all started when my son showed me a site he follows on insta, a @rojiman post of Donald the Cat and Kim Jong the cat. Silly and juvenile as it seems, I found it very funny. And like all things, when your senses tune into the universe (yes I’m a true believer of the @attractorfactor) funny scenarios happen to appear almost instantly, see @celestebarber.
Published: Sylvia Jimenez